{"id":33009,"date":"2018-10-23T22:06:06","date_gmt":"2018-10-23T22:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=33009"},"modified":"2018-10-23T22:06:06","modified_gmt":"2018-10-23T22:06:06","slug":"at-1-6-billion-i-should-be-all-over-this-game-but-im-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=33009","title":{"rendered":"At $1.6 billion, I should be all over this game &#8230; but I&#8217;m not"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/MegaMillionsLogo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-33010\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/MegaMillionsLogo-300x152.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"152\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/MegaMillionsLogo-300x152.jpg 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/MegaMillionsLogo-768x390.jpg 768w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/MegaMillionsLogo-1024x520.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/MegaMillionsLogo.jpg 1330w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I remain adamantly opposed to games of chance, even those that offer up prizes totaling $1.6 <em>billion<\/em>, which the Mega Millions lottery is offering at this moment.<\/p>\n<p>In the early 1990s, when Texas was discussing whether to allow a lottery, I wrote editorials from my post at the Beaumont Enterprise opposing it. The state voted &#8212; I think it was in 1991 &#8212; to approve the lottery in a statewide election; the approval was overwhelming. So much for the &#8220;power of the press.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I have played the Texas Lottery exactly twice. The first time, I purchased a $1 ticket at a Beaumont convenience store and won $3.<\/p>\n<p>Woo hoo! I was $2 to the good.<\/p>\n<p>I played again the next week. I plunked down another buck. I came up empty. That&#8217;s when I quit. I was still $1 on the plus side.<\/p>\n<p>The lottery, the Mega Millions, the Power Ball games have no appeal to me. Honest! They don&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>I know a few friends who&#8217;ve squandered a lot of their life savings trying to win &#8220;the big one.&#8221; Yes, I know a few who&#8217;ve done well. The most astonishing story involves a young man with whom I worked at the Amarillo Globe-News. He went to Lubbock one day, purchased a ticket &#8212; and walked away with a million bucks.<\/p>\n<p>I was told by another friend that this fellow hardly ever plays the game. He just thought he&#8217;d lay down a few bucks. And then? <em>Boom!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>That kind of dumb luck is foreign to me.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, I won&#8217;t get sucked into this game. Not even for a smooth billion-six.<\/p>\n<p>Good luck to whoever wins. You&#8217;ll need it. <em>Bigly.<\/em><\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I remain adamantly opposed to games of chance, even those that offer up prizes totaling $1.6 billion, which the Mega Millions lottery is offering at this moment. In the early 1990s, when Texas was discussing whether to allow a lottery, I wrote editorials from my post at the Beaumont Enterprise opposing it. The state voted &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=33009\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">At $1.6 billion, I should be all over this game &#8230; but I&#8217;m not<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2992,8061,4658],"class_list":["post-33009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-mega-millions","tag-power-ball","tag-texas-lottery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33011,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33009\/revisions\/33011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}